Mund spent her time growing up in Bismarck and spent much of her childhood devoting her time to philanthropy and her career.

FARGO, ND — She’s not only making North Dakota history, but the nation’s eyes are all on her.

Cara Mund of Bismarck has been crowned Miss America.

She spent a lot of time in Fargo, advancing her career as a model, a dancer and a philanthropist.

When you think Miss America, you think of beauty pageants, but to many who know and have worked with the 23–year–old Mund, she takes it further than just beauty and talent.

“She’s just a tremendous role model for kids throughout the state,” said Billi Zielinski, the President and CEO of Make-A-Wish North Dakota.

“She has always been just a charm to work with and be around,” said Stacey Lentz, who is the director of Academie Agencie.

Mund’s crowning makes her the first woman from North Dakota to capture the title.

“I’m so proud and pleased to be her colleague and friend through this journey and that Make–A–Wish has brought us together,” Zielinski said.

Every Miss America contestant has a platform, a cause they are dedicated to.

Mund’s platform is ‘A Make–A–Wish Passion with Fashion’.

It’s an annual fashion show she founded when she was just 14.

“She also has raised over $76,000 dollars for Make–A–Wish North Dakota, granting wishes to kids,” Zielinski said.

Mund spent her time growing up in Bismarck and spent much of her childhood devoting her time to philanthropy and her career.

“So Cara is an ambitious individual,” Zelinski said. She has a passion for Make–A–Wish and you can see that in everything that she does.”

“She has been training for this all her life, and she didn’t even know it,” Lentz said. “Well, she maybe hoped it and dreamt it. She has really put her time in. She didn’t just land on the Miss America stage.”

Starting in 2002, Cara traveled back and forth from Bismarck to Fargo for photoshoots and to walk this runway at the Academie Agencie.

“She’s passionate, she’s beautiful, she’s talented,” Lentz said. “This is not the last we’ve seen of her. She’ll be back to the state and ready to embrace us and whatever comes her way.”

Mund is also familiar to North Dakota’s politics.

Before taking the crown, she interned at Senator Hoeven’s Washington, D.C. office in the summer of 2016, but even with a busy schedule, those who work with her say it never slowed her down.

“We couldn’t have granted wishes and transformed the lives that we do without someone like Cara,” Zielinski said.

With her now down in the history books, Mund will continue to inspire young people to shoot for the stars.

“It’s so exciting to have a Miss America because it means to our young people, it’s possible,” Lentz said.

Those who have worked close to her are excited for her to return to her home state as the new Miss America.

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